Just Blaze Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records!!!

@ 07:18 PM 09-21-2019

Bill Wallace

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27 K 6 years ago

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↪ https://www.complex.com/m .. -part-2/oh-boy

Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana �Oh Boy�

Just Blaze: �There was drama about that song being Jay's originally, and that they stole Jay's beat or whatever. It totally wasn't like that. Originally, the beat was much faster. I made it as an up-tempo record for Bleek but he turned it down. I reworked it and slowed it down, but he still wasn't really feeling it.

�Jay walked in and heard it and was like, 'Yo, that's serious,' but he wasn't working on an album at the time. He had just finished Blueprint 2, so he was like, 'Hold that for me.' There's a million beats like that. Jay said the same thing about 'Pump It Up.' Sometimes he'll hear a beat and like it but he won't like it a year later when he's making an album.

�Hip Hop, who was A&R'ing at the time, would have a case full of CDs. One day, Cam and them came to the studio and asked Hip Hop if he had any beats. Hip played a bunch of beats and the 'Oh Boy' beat was on one of the CD's. They did the record, and Guru called me like, 'Yo, Cam and them is about to do this 'Oh Boy' joint.' I was like, 'Go ahead.' That was it. They did it, and they took it to radio like five minutes later, before I could even hear it.

�I was on my way to the studio to hear the record. I was at a lounge and realized that I was hearing it off the radio. That was when Power 105 had just started. There weren't any DJs around. It was automated and they were playing the original demo version that Cam had brought to Angie's show. They weren't even playing the finished version for the first few months, because everything was by computer, and they hadn't updated their computers at the station.

That goes to show you that every once in a while, you have a good song and you don't have to spend a million dollars to shove down the radio's throats. Every once in a while, you just have a record that's special. That was one of them.�

Cam'ron f/ Jay-Z & Juelz Santana �Welcome to New York City�

Just Blaze: �I originally made that for Freeway, but then Cam came in the studio. They'd been wanting to get Jay on a record, because up until that point, Jay hadn't done anything.

�Cam came into the room like, 'Yo, yo, I got 'em, I got 'em, I got 'em. I think he's going to do it.' He was going around saying it. Obviously, it's funny because of how the history ended up between them. Cam was genuinely excited that Jay was [going to be on that record].

�He was like, 'He's agreed to do it. He said he'll do it today, he just needs the beat. I need a beat, I need a beat!' I played a beat I was making for Freeway, and I was like, 'What about this?' He was like, 'Yeah, that could be it.' I went into the hook really quick and sang the 'Welcome to New York City' part, and that was that.

�I heard a voice saying 'Welcome to New York City,' so I sang it. [Laughs] A lot of times, people think that there's this big mystery behind things. Creativity, sometimes you don't know where it comes from. You might know what inspires you, but you don't know where the idea comes from.

�For me, that's what it was. I was like, 'Yo, this might sound good. 'Welcome to New York City!'' The concept of that record was about New York. Then, the song became a New York anthem. That was pretty much it.�

Cam'ron f/ Memphis Bleek & Beanie Sigel �The Roc"

Just Blaze: �Beans was trying to do some weird, overlapping rhyme scheme. I don't think anyone ever caught it. Jay's actually on that record for, like, two words. People don't realize that. It was towards the end of Beans' rap, he screams out 'Jigga Man!'

�I don't know why he did that, but it's there. That's probably the funniest thing about that record. They were all one crew under the same roof trying to make good music, but it wasn't like things were peachy all the time.

�I don't talk about my records like this too much, but that beat was ret@rded, and we all knew it. This beat is beyond me. It's special.

�I remember Hip Hop saying, 'We need a welcome to Roc-A-Fella record.' Everyone was in agreement, so that's what we did. This was actually the beginning of Dame and I falling out, because Dame wanted to take Bleek off the record.

�Bleek kills it and sets it off perfectly. Dame wanted to take him off because his claim was, 'We need to position Bleek as a young LL because the ladies love him so much. We don't need him to be on this record talking reckless or whatever, because we need to position him as the ladies man.'

�No one's saying anything. Everyone is just standing around, looking around. I don't even think Bleek was in the room at that time. Dame was trying to push things in that lane. I said to him, 'You're using the LL example. You forgetting about 'I Shot Ya'? You forgetting about 'I'm Bad'? Like you're forgetting about 'Can't Live Without My Radio'?'

�I said, 'Duke, those are all hard records. What made LL dope was that he could make a record like 'I Need Love' and then turn around and do 'Rock The Bells.' He could do a 'Hey Luv' or 'Lounging,' and turn around and do 'I Shot Ya,' or 'One Shot At Love' and turn around do 'Mama Said Knock You Out' and then take it to club and do 'Jingling Baby.'

�The girls already like Bleek. We don't need to push him off of hard records and onto girl records just for the sake of him being an MC that appeals to females, because that's not really where LL is at. Guys and girls liked LL in his prime, because he could do both and it was believable.'

�So, I spoke out very vocally about that, and I think that was the beginning of the fallout between Dame and I. We fought on that record. I remember saying to him, 'You've always said that you're not the music dude, you're the business dude. So why are you getting involved in the music?'

�Me and him had already had a little bit of tension, so I was feeling some kind of way. At that point, I'd been putting records together for the label for a couple of years, and I was starting to see more of the dynamics of how things worked. I was like, Let me do what I do.

�I respect everyone's opinion, and I take everyone's opinion into consideration, but that record was perfect. You couldn't ask for a better welcome to Roc-A-Fella record. I was like, 'The only thing that could make this record better was if Jay got on it, and Jay will probably get on something else. This is fine the way it is, and Jay being on it might affect someone else's verse.'

�Someone might have gotten their verse cut down, and I don't want to do all that. The record is dope the way it is. We went back and forth throughout the course of that night, but the record stood the way it was and thank God, because that's a mean one right there.�

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